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Implementing VEX GO STEM Labs

STEM Labs are designed to be the online teacher’s manual for VEX GO. Like a printed teacher’s manual, the teacher-facing content of the STEM Labs provides all of the resources, materials, and information needed to be able to plan, teach, and assess with VEX GO. The Lab Image Slideshows are the student-facing companion to this material. For more detailed information about how to implement a STEM Lab in your classroom, see the Implementing VEX GO STEM Labs article.

Goals and Standards

Goals

Students will apply

  • How to use data to identify cause-and-effect relationships.
  • Using a wheel and axle to move an object more easily.

Students will make meaning of

  • How simple machines, such as the wheel and axle make work easier by changing the direction or strength of a force.

Students will be skilled at

  • How to conduct an investigation in order to understand real world phenomena. 
  • Using a wheel and axle to affect the motion of their Spring Car.
     

 

Students will know

  • How simple machines, such as a wheel and axle, make work easier.

Objective(s)

Objective

  1. Students will conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
  2. Students will use data to analyze cause-and-effect relationships based on data from their investigation.
     

Activity

  1. Students will use the Spring Car build to test the distance that it will travel without wheels, compared to the distance it will travel with wheels. Students will run 3 test trials without wheels in Play Part 1, then make predictions for how those distances will change when they add the wheels in Play Part 2.
  2. Students will analyze data from the test trials in Play Part 1 and 2 to identify how the wheel and axle affect the motion of their Spring Car.
     

Assessment

  1. Students will observe and record data in the form of predictions and measured distances from test trials on their Data Collection Sheets in Play Part 1 and 2.
  2. Students will make connections between the use of the wheel and axle and the distance their car traveled. They will share their observations in discussions in the Mid-Play Break and Share sections of the Lab.

Connections to Standards